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CRIME

91-year-old Danish man tied to bed during home burglary

A 91-year-old Danish man was tied to his bed while two burglars stole a television along with cash from his home near Copenhagen.

Published: 23 October 2017 16:56 CEST
91-year-old Danish man tied to bed during home burglary
Photo: Iris/Scanpix

The two men stayed in the 91-year-old’s home for some time after restraining him, before they then stole his possessions, reports news agency Ritzau.

The home burglary in the town of Hvidovre near Copenhagen took place in the early hours of Sunday, according to police, who have now called for help from the public in connection with the case.

“If anyone has seen suspicious-looking men making observations in the area of Rødvig Allé [street, ed.] on Saturday evening or in the early hours of Sunday, we would very much like to hear from them,” investigation leader Ole Nielsen of West Copenhagen Police said in a press statement.

The men remained in the 91-year-old’s villa for approximately two hours while they tried to locate a safe, Nielsen said.

The victim’s arm was tied to his bed frame, which prevented him from alerting police immediately after the incident, according to the report.

The men are reported to be of normal build and spoke Danish with foreign accents. One wore a dark-coloured hoodie and the other a dark jacket.

They are thought to have left the area by car.

A previous home robbery took place in the same area last week, when a 77-year-old woman’s home was broken into on the nearby Hædersdalvej street on the night of the October 15th.

Stealing from private homes is treated as a more serious crime than other types of theft in Denmark, and carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison.

READ ALSO: Home break-ins hit 20-year low in Denmark

CRIME

Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

Denmark’s government wants authorities to be able to move children out of families in which parents are gang members and is likely to formalise the measure in parliament.

Published: 9 April 2024 13:38 CEST
Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

The justice spokesperson with senior coalition partner the Social Democrats, Bjørn Brandenborg, told regional media TV2 Fyn that he wants authorities to have the power to remove children from their families in certain circumstances where the parents are gang members.

Brandenborg’s comments came on Monday, after Odense Municipality said it had spent 226 million kroner since 2009 on social services for eight specific families with gang connections.

“There is simply a need for us to give the authorities full backing and power to forcibly remove children early so we break the food chain and the children don’t become part of gang circles,” he said.

The measure will be voted on in parliament “within a few weeks”, he said.

An earlier agreement on anti-gang crime measures, which was announced by the government last November, includes provisions for measures of this nature, Brandenborg later confirmed to newswire Ritzau.

“Information [confirming] that close family members of a child or young person have been convicted for gang crime must be included as a significant and element in the municipality’s assessment” of whether an intervention is justified, the agreement states according to Ritzau.

The relevant part of November’s political agreement is expected to be voted on in parliament this month.

READ ALSO: Denmark cracks down on gang crime with extensive new agreement

Last year, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told political media Altinget that family relations to a gang member could be a parameter used by authorities when assessing whether a child should be forcibly removed from parents.

In the May 2023 interview, Hummelgaard called the measure a “hard and far-reaching measure”.

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